The Blue Suit
by scriberbean
Summary: Were you a hero, grandpa? Marks recalls his adventures with Sam Carter years later.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: Some material is borrowed from Stargate SG-1 episodes, but this story involves an altered version of events in which the Ori do not exist and the Asgard are not sharing much of their technology. No copyright infringement is intended. Many thanks to Skydiver for advice on framing this story. The flaws and limitations, of course, remain my own._

The Blue Suit

"Grandpa, Grandpa! Come out and play baseball with us!" Ed's granddaughter cried as she came bounding into his bedroom at the top of the stairs, her long brown ponytail sticking out from her Detroit Tigers cap. Her brother wasn't far behind. No cap covered his close-cropped dark hair, but he was wearing a baseball glove.

"Yeah, it's no fun playing just with dopey Kristin," said 13-year old Luke.

"I am not dopey! You just don't pitch right," countered his 11-year old sister.

"I can't play right now and if you don't knock it off, I won't come out when I'm done," scolded Ed, but he couldn't help smiling.

"What are you doing, Grandpa?" said Kristin, just noticing that her grandfather was very carefully affixing some kind of pins to a blue suit he had draped on a valet.

"That's Grandpa's Air Force uniform, silly," said Luke with the authority of an older brother. "He was a colonel, you know. What are you doing with it?"

"Well, I'm making sure everything's in the right place. Remember how you're going to have Karen from next door babysit…"

Luke rolled his eyes. His expression said "I don't need a babysitter."

"Er, stay with you tomorrow night?" Ed corrected. He and his wife loved having the children stay with them and this summer they had the kids with them in Colorado for two full weeks. The children nodded. "Your grandma and I are going to a special party for a very important person from the Air Force."

"Who?" asked Luke.

"Lieutenant General Samantha Carter. She's retiring."

"A lady General? Cool!" said Kristin.

"She must be really old," commented Luke.

"She is cool," Ed replied, chuckling—and ignoring the "old" comment. He ran his hand through his own graying, and admittedly a bit thinning hair. "She and I worked together several times over the years and I owe her a lot," he added more seriously.

"Was that when you were working to make the world safe, like Mom says?" asked Kristin.

"Making the world safe" was a good way to put it, Colonel Edward Marks, USAF, Ret., thought. The Stargate program had become public a few years back and so people knew at least the general outlines of the kind of work he and the others had done.

"Were you a hero, Grandpa?" asked Luke. "It sure looks like you have a lot of medals."

"Well, I don't know about that," Ed said, sitting on the bed. He was uncomfortable with hero talk. "But General Carter sure was. She really did help save the world." _And me_, he thought.

"How was she a hero?" asked Luke.

"Yeah, tell us about her, Grandpa, please?" wheedled Kristin, scooting herself close to him on the bed. She loved Grandpa's stories. He told them all about growing up in the olden days, but he had never told them about saving the world. That sounded like the best yet.

"Well, I guess I could tell you a few stories," Ed began.

"Was she your CO?" asked Luke, trying to sound knowledgeable, sitting himself down on the other side of his grandpa.

"Was she pretty?" asked Kristin, feeling that was a more essential issue.

"No, she wasn't my commanding officer, but she always did outrank me and so could give me orders. And yes, she was quite pretty, Kristin. But not as pretty as your grandmother," Ed added with a fond smile. "Let me tell you about how I first met Samantha Carter and your grandma."

The children looked at him expectantly.

"Well, I first met them in the infirmary—that's like a hospital," Ed started.

"Was grandma sick?" Kristin interrupted.

"Just let grandpa tell it, Kris," said Luke.

"Anyway," Ed resumed, "General Hammond ordered me to work with Major Carter (she was a major then) on a project, but she was in the infirmary."

"Major Carter and I were to work on a new power module for the space ship _Prometheus_. I knew the project must be urgent since we were starting work while Carter was doing a week in the infirmary for observation," Ed explained. "She had hurt her head pretty badly when aliens had attacked the ship and captured the rest of the crew as they fled in escape pods."

Kristin and Luke's dark eyes grew round. "How did she get home?" asked Kristin. "What about the crew?" Luke asked.

"Well, I don't know the whole story," Ed replied, "but somehow Major Carter managed to figure out both a way out of the nebula the ship was stuck in and to negotiate the release of her crew."

"I was pretty nervous the first day," Ed told the children, "because she was so smart. She had figured out how to use the Stargate after all, and I was only a Lieutenant. A friend of mine teased me about working with "Major Egghead."

"Major Egghead!" Kristin and Luke giggled.

_"Lieutenant Marks reporting, Major Carter," he said. _

_"At ease, Lieutenant, and pull up a chair," Sam said from her infirmary bed with a small smile. _

_To a nurse who was putting away a blood pressure cuff she had evidently just used on the Major, Carter said: "I'll be fine Lieutenant. I'm sure you have other patients."_

_The nurse--"Cassini" according to her nameplate--frowned and said: "I don't know how you talked Doctor Fraiser into this, but remember-- just an hour. You've been through a lot." She gave Marks a stern look and then left the room._

_Dr. Fraiser allowed Marks to come in at 11:00 each morning to work with Major Carter for an hour. _

"Well, Major Carter turned out to be as brilliant as everyone said," Ed continued. "She could be frustrating, though, because her mind worked a mile a minute and she expected me to keep up. More than once she had to back up a step to let me catch up."

_"Oh, let me just tweak the algorithm and you can plug in the data and we'll be in business!" she had said excitedly one time. _

_"Uh, which data is that, Major?" he had asked diffidently. _

_"The reactor data from the P3X-824 mission," she said with a frown. Duh, Lieutenant, he thought she must be thinking--but he had no idea what she was talking about._

_He continued to stare at her blankly. "Oh, that's right," she said, shaking her head, "you wouldn't have that. Go tell Dr. Harper I said to give you the material."_

_He popped up to go but she motioned him back to his seat and smiled. "I didn't mean this second, Lieutenant. But get it to me by our meeting tomorrow. _

_Within the first couple of days, Marks realized she expected him to be sharp and work hard, but certainly no harder than she was working herself. He thought she looked tired._

_Every day at noon on the dot, Jo Cassini, who was Major Carter's main nurse, appeared. "Ok, Major, that's enough for today. Time to leave, Lieutenant," she would say, making a shooing motion._

_And every day Major Carter would say: "Just five more minutes." But Jo was firm and Marks would leave with his assignment for the next day._

_On Day Four, Major Carter took a different tack. _

_"Look, Lieutenant," she told Cassini, "I promise to take a rest if you let Marks come back in an hour so we can finish up this program. As a matter of fact, why don't you and Ed go get a bite to eat in the Commissary? Then you can make sure he doesn't come back for an hour. You've got to eat and it's your lunch break anyway."_

_Surprisingly, Jo had acceded to the request. "Ok, but if he tires you out, Dr. Fraiser will have my bar." _

_Carter had given a bright grin and then mock meekly lain back on the bed._

_When they came back to the infirmary, they had found Major Carter asleep and slinked out of the room._

_"You've got to watch her," Jo had said. "She tends to overdo. God only knows how she managed to function all those days and save the Prometheus crew with that kind of head injury." _

"After that, Jo and I had lunch together every day that our duties permitted. She was very pretty and smart and funny and nice, Ed said with a smile. She had dark hair and beautiful brown eyes. I fell in love with her during that first lunch. Guess who the nurse was?"

"Grandma!" Luke said, catching on.

"You were her Prince Charming!" added Kristin.

"Oh, brother. You and your fairy tales," Luke said, disgusted.

"So I have General Carter to thank for bringing your grandma and me together."

"That's good. Did you have any adventures, though, grandpa?" asked Luke.

"There was a time when Carter and I worked together aboard the _Prometheus_," said Ed. I was a captain by then and assigned to the bridge. Major Carter was a Colonel then and she was on board for our mission to a planet called Tegalus."

"Whoa!" said Luke, "Did you land on the planet? Were there aliens there?"

"Well, they were aliens in that they weren't from Earth, but they were human," Ed explained. "There were two countries on the planet that fought a lot— Caledonia and Rand. We were sent to see if the Rand had gotten dangerous technology and were building a space fleet to go to war."

"And your job was to keep the people safe," interrupted Kristin.

"That's right, honey," said Ed. "But things didn't go according to plan."

_Upon its emergence from hyperspace near Tegalus, the Prometheus came under immediate attack. _

_The damn Asgard hadn't seen fit to give the Earth full shield capability—it was like a bad Windows version, Marks remembered ruefully. At least the shields didn't sputter out that time, as they had a tendency to do in tests. But the Prometheus had been no match for the fleet of Rand ships_.

"Explosions were going off all around us, but Colonel Carter was totally calm," said Ed. "Colonel Pendergast, the ship captain, sent me with her to try to reroute power to get the sub-light engines back on line."

"Were you scared?" asked Kristin.

"Well, kind of scared, but I knew what I needed to do."

Actually, I was so rattled, I tried to take the elevator and she had to call me back, Marks recalled with chagrin.

"We were climbing the ladder to Deck 15 when another explosion rocked the ship and I lost my grip," Ed continued. "I barely caught my self one-handed on a rung. If Colonel Carter hadn't grabbed for me and caught me I would have fallen a long way and been hurt badly," said Ed.

More like crushed my skull, Ed thought, but I'm not sure the kids need to hear that. Sure, I dislocated my shoulder, but that was a hell of a lot better than doing a Humpty Dumpty.

"Wow, she must have been strong," commented Kristin.

"Yes, she was. Of course everyone in the Air Force is expected to be physically fit," explained Ed.

"What happened then, Grandpa?" prompted Luke.

_After they got the naquadah generator working, Carter ordered him to the rings, but made no move herself. He looked at her expectantly._

_"Go. I've got to finish tying this in or we'll run out of power before everyone can ring off the ship. I'll be right behind you," she added, not looking up from her keyboard._

_He didn't want to leave her. The chances of her making it off the ship were slim if she stayed much longer and shouldn't he be helping her?_

_"Ed. Go."_

_He walked guiltily the few steps to the rings and had a brief glimpse of her bent over her terminal before the light flashed and he materialized on the planet._

_An airman came up to him. "Where is Colonel Carter?" he asked. "Wasn't she right behind us?"_

_"She ordered me off the ship. She said she'd stay to make sure the transport worked." _

_As he and the others milled around in shock from the attack and evacuation, he waited for what seemed like hours for Carter to ring down. When she did, Marks and the others swarmed around her in concern. She had a badly singed arm, but shook off the medic who tried to examine her._

_"Where's Colonel Pendergast?" she said, looking around._

_"We haven't seen him, ma'am." _

_"I thought I waited 'til the last second, but maybe the generator hasn't been hit yet. He might still make it."_

_But as the minutes passed, they all knew it was hopeless. The ship had been destroyed with Colonel Pendergast aboard. He was a good commander, thought Marks. A look of great sadness passed over Carter's face, but then she took a deep breath and began organizing the survivors._

_"Sergeant Gibson, see what you can do to help Lieutenant Jackson," she said, indicating the medic she had brushed off a minute ago. "Lieutenant Singh, establish a perimeter." _

_"Yes, ma'am," the two airmen replied smartly._

_"Sergeant Romanowski, what do you have in the way of communications? We need to contact the rest of our people," she continued in the same calm manner. _

"Shehad a way of reassuring us," Marks remembered. "She never barked orders, but no one doubted her authority. She and SG1 later worked on a way to get us all home, but I wasn't involved in that part."

"But you helped her save the crew, right Grandpa?" said Luke loyally.

"Yeah, we worked together," he responded with a smile, "and she taught me a lot by her actions."

"Tell us another story about you and Colonel Carter, Grandpa," demanded Kristin.

"Well," Ed said thoughtfully, "there was the time we beat the Lucien Alliance."


	2. Chapter 2

"Tell us another story about you and Colonel Carter, Grandpa," demanded Kristin.

"Well," Ed said thoughtfully, "there was the time we beat the Lucien Alliance."

"What planet did they live on?" asked Luke.

"They were basically bad guys who moved around a lot stealing and hurting people," explained their grandfather. "That time we sort of ran into them by accident."

Man, I really thought we were goners that time, Ed thought.

"My ship was the _Odyssey_ and we were checking intelligence reports on a possible ship graveyard that could supply the Earth with advanced technology. Colonel Carter was helping us. But as soon as we got there," he said with a frown, "things went bad. There were Lucien Alliance ships waiting for us."

_"Major, get us out of here," ordered Colonel Emerson. Marks put some distance between the Odyssey and the enemy ships. _

_We'll be ok, he thought._

_Then Colonel Carter was saying: "It's a minefield," in a tone of disbelief._

_Oh, shit. It's a trap, Marks thought.._

_The ship rocked. Consoles on the bridge began to crackle and blow. The next thing Ed knew he was coming to with a screaming headache. He looked up at Colonel Emerson through the acrid smoke drifting through the air and realized he had been thrown out of his chair. _

_Marks remembered that Colonel Carter had been standing right behind him and looked around for her. She was in a bloody heap on the deck. _

"I was worried that Colonel Carter had been thrown into the bulkhead and hurt badly," said Ed. "I saw other crewmen get up and check their stations. But before I could get my bearings, five Lucien Alliance goons burst onto the bridge, guns drawn."

Kristin cuddled closer to her grandfather and Luke's eyes were big.

_"Stand down, people," Emerson ordered. One goon swaggered over to Carter and gave her a kick in the ribs. To see if she's faking, Marks guessed. Her body shifted slightly with the impact, but she didn't regain consciousness. Man, I wanted to jump that guy, Marks recalled, but of course that would have been suicidal. The biggest goon—Marks instantly thought of him as "Bluto"—seemed to be the one giving orders._

"Was his name really, Bluto—like on Popeye?" Luke asked, disbelieving.

"No, but he was big and mean like Bluto, so that's what I called him in my head," said Ed.

_  
"She alive?" Bluto asked his henchman._

_"Yeah."_

_  
"Bring her along," he commanded, as the other goons began herding the rest of the crew out. Two guys grabbed Carter's legs and began dragging her. Her head hit the deck as she was dragged off the low platform at the engineering station. Marks gritted his teeth in anger._

_Emerson stepped forward. "We'll carry her," he said evenly. _

_Bluto grunted, shrugged and signaled his permission with a dismissive wave. _

"Colonel Emerson was very brave for standing up to those guys. I was near Colonel Carter so I started to help to carry her," Ed continued with the story. _Yeah, that was smart,_ he thought to himself, _I nearly passed out halfway down the hall. Good thing Lieutenant Madison was right there or both the Colonel and I would have hit the deck again. "_But then some other airmen took over because they could see I wasn't feeling well. I bet your grandma could have fixed me up just fine," he added with a smile.

"She always cleans up my knees and puts on a band-aid so it doesn't hurt when I fall off my bike," commented Kristin.

"Right. But at the time I was glad she was safe on Earth helping any sick or hurt people at the SGC," said Ed.

"Well, the Lucien Alliance thugs herded the crew to the Cargo Bay and locked us in. The medics were really good and took care of the other injured and cleaned up Carter's head wound. But I was pretty worried when she didn't wake up for what seemed like forever. In the meantime, I helped the medics make bandages and slings for the people who got hurt. Eventually Colonel Carter got up and went to talk to Colonel Emerson. "

"Maybe ten minutes later a few of the bad guys came looking for Colonel Carter, but they didn't know what she looked like. They threatened to hurt people if she didn't come forward. She didn't want anyone else to get hurt, so she stepped forward and said 'I'm Carter.' " _Actually, they threatened to space all of us, but I guess I don't need to tell the kids that,_ thought Ed. "They hauled her and Emerson out of there, leaving us to worry."

_Hours later they shoved Carter back into the Cargo Bay, minus Colonel Emerson--and with new blood on her face and uniform. _

_I couldn't help it, Ed remembered, with some shame. I rushed up to her, relieved that she and not I, would be in charge now. _

_"Colonel, you were gone for hours. What happened? Where's Colonel Emerson?"_

_What looked suspiciously like tears formed in her eyes. She shook her head slightly and looked away. Marks took the hint and gave her a few minutes. The moment passed quickly._

_Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter walked to the center of the room, drawing everyone's eyes. _

_"The bastards killed Colonel Emerson," she announced without preamble. The tears in her eyes had been replaced by flint. _

_A few crew members gasped._

_"Rest assured, his murder will not go unpunished and we will find a way to retake the ship. They'll be back for me, but I expect you to follow standing orders in my absence." The crew nodded in acknowledgment._

_She moved toward the side of the room to check on the crew members, but Marks stood in her path._

_"Are you ok, Colonel?" he asked, looking at her bloody scalp and the blood on her uniform. _

_She glanced down at herself. "Most of this is his." Marks knew she meant Colonel Emerson and he felt queasy. God, she must have been right next to him, he thought._

"Good Lord, Ed! What are you telling them?" Ed's wife Jo was standing in the doorway looking appalled.

"He's telling us how he and General Carter saved the world! And about you too! How you helped her get better and how pretty you were and how grandpa was your Prince Charming!" said Kristin excitedly from her position next to her grandfather.

Jo raised her eyebrows at that last bit. "Prince Charming, is it?"

He smiled at her. "As pretty as the day I married you."

"Well, can you at least make it a bit less bloody?" Jo asked Ed. "Do you want to give them nightmares?"

"I won't have nightmares," Luke chimed in confidently.

"Sorry if I went overboard, dear," Ed apologized.

Jo sat down on the bedroom chair and motioned her husband to continue the story.

_"Ma'am, what did you mean when you said they'll be back for you?" he asked._

_"They want me to fix the ship. They roughed me up a bit after they shot Colonel Emerson," she said without emotion, "so they think they've got me intimidated. I decided to play along and stall to buy time." _

_"Isn't that… well, dangerous, ma'am?" Marks asked._

_She looked Marks in the eye. "If they figure it out, you're in charge as the next senior officer, Major. Try to save the crew if you can, but don't let this ship fall into their hands. Everyone will be counting on you and I know you're up to it."_

_He swallowed hard and replied in the only way possible. "Yes, ma'am." _

_"Good man," Sam said, touching him lightly on the arm. Despite the fact that I was scared shitless, Marks recalled, that really boosted my confidence._

"Colonel Carter really helped me be confident," is what Ed said aloud. "She was very clever and made them believe that she was fixing the ship for them."

_On about her fourth trip back from "working" on the ship's systems she gave Marks a small hand signal to come over to her._

_"I think I can trigger the hatch to open next time I'm up at the auxiliary controls," Carter told him quietly. "It will be up to you to keep an eye out and take advantage of the opportunity quickly. I can't predict with any certainty exactly when I'll get an opening." _

_"We'll make the most of it, ma'am," he replied._

_They came back for the Colonel after about a four hour break, as per usual. When the hatch released, Marks and his people were ready. As soon as they saw the red light on the security camera go out, Marks sent out his teams to retake the key areas of the ship._

_Things went smoothly at first, but when his team approached the auxiliary control room and he peered around the corner, he saw Colonel Carter seated at the console--with Bluto pointing a gun at her. God damnit! he thought. _

_"Hey Bluto!" he yelled. _

_As Marks had hoped, Bluto turned to the sound, taking his gun off the Colonel. Carter launched herself at him, tackling him and knocking the weapon out of his hand. Marks zatted him quickly._

_Carter got to her feet and gave him a relieved smile. "Thanks, Captain." _

"Yay, Grandpa!" cried Kristin, clapping her hands.

"Way to go!" said Luke at the same time.

Jo just smiled proudly at him.

_The next instant Carter was all business. "What's our status?" _

_Once they had the ship back, Carter put Marks in charge of a detail repairing the sub-light systems, which was well within his comfort zone._

_"I hear good things about how you handled yourself in the Cargo Bay, Ed," she commented after coming in to check his progress. _

_"Thank-you, ma'am," he replied with ill-disguised pleasure._

_"Never doubted it, Major. Keep up the good work."_

Ed smiled, remembering how proud he was to get such a compliment from Colonel Carter.

"See, you are a hero, Grandpa," declared Luke.

"He sure is, kiddo," said Jo. "I think you can tell them about your visit to Plinea."

"Ok," he said.

_Lieutenant Colonel Ed Marks was reading the newspaper at the breakfast table with his wife one Saturday morning when the phone rang. Jo got up from the table grumbling. _

_"Who calls at 8:00 on a Saturday morning?"_

_Ed continued eating his eggs and turned to the sports page._

_"Hello? Yes, it is. Oh, that's ok, ma'am." Jo was saying. "He's right here." _

_She covered the receiver with her hand. "It's for you Ed. I think it's important. It's General Carter."_

_That explained why Jo said "ma'am," he thought as he reflexively straightened his posture as if the General were in the room with him._

_He took the phone from her. "Marks here."_

_"I've got an assignment for you, Ed," Brigadier General Samantha Carter said. "I think you'll find it's right up your alley."_

"Ooh, what was the assignment?" asked Kristin. "To go on a ship again?"

"Well, usually I was assigned on ships, but this job was a bit different," answered Ed.

"I was to go with General Carter to the planet called Plinea to finish evaluating some power and space navigation systems and negotiate a trade for them."

"To help protect Earth, right Grandpa?" interrupted his grandson.

"That's right, Luke. Because of our previous work together, General Carter knew that I worked with those kinds of things and thought I'd be able to help."

"So you were as smart as her now?" asked Kristin, remembering his first story.

"Well, I don't know about that, but I was pretty smart about this stuff," answered Ed.

_Of course I should have known with a former_ _a former member of SG1 involved, the shit was likely to hit the fan_, Marks thought.

"General Carter had picked a team of four to go with her to the planet to work on this project." Ed continued.

"Who else went along? What were they like?" asked Kristin.

"Well, let's see," Ed said, scratching his razor stubble, thinking how Jo always complained about kissing him when he hadn't shaved. But he hated to shave when he didn't have to go anywhere.

"There was Captain Hillary Jenkins, who was our language specialist. I remember she was red haired, kind of short, but muscularly built. And very smart. I think she knew about six languages, before she even learned Plinean."

"Wow," said Kristin admiringly.

"Then there was our engineering specialist, Captain Jamal Tyler. He was a tall African American who wore glasses. He and his wife had had a baby recently, so he showed his picture to everyone.

"Everyone was some kind of technical expert except Major Tom Zamora. He was our security guy. And he looked the part, even in his blues. Big and beefy, but with a great sense of humor," recalled Ed.

"Blues?" asked Kristin.

"That's what we call our uniforms like this one," Ed said, indicating the uniform hanging on the valet.

"Otherwise you wear cammos, right, Grandpa?" asked Luke with the air of an expert.

"Stop being a know-it-all, Luke," Kristin said.

_Carter and her hand-picked team stepped through the gate in their blues and were met by the Plinean Executive, Cato, and his staff, who escorted them to their Quorum Chamber. All went as planned—at first._

"I must admit the discussions were kind of slow and I got a bit bored," Ed commented. "So, I began to look around the room. Have you ever seen pictures of the US Senate Chamber?" he asked the children.

"Yeah, we've seen it in Social Studies," said Luke.

"Ok, so the Quorum chamber looked a little like that with the desks for the members to sit at and the big desk up front," their grandfather explained. "Of course it was a bit different, being an alien planet and all. There were elaborate murals on the wall, that I think were stories of Plinean history. Also, at the front desk is where the Quorum Chairman and Executive sat and two guards stood on either side of them. The guards did have weapons in their holsters, but they were wearing tall, puffy caps and shiny gold sashes. They seemed like ceremonial outfits to me."

"Puffy caps? Like chef's hats?" asked Kristin, giggling a little.

"Well, now that you mention it—kind of. But these were very brightly colored,"

Ed explained. "Red and purple as I recall."

"Pretty," commented Kristin, who loved bold colors.

_After four hours, the parties had agreed to language involving the trade of the advanced navigational systems._

_"It's getting late and if there are no objections, I will call the meeting adjourned," stated the Chairman. No one objected and he banged his ornate staff twice on the marble floor._

_As the meeting broke up, Cato made his way over to the Quorum desks where Carter's team had been sitting. The two uniformed men hovered near Executive Cato. The other members made their way out the back doors, which Marks gathered served as a private exit for the Quorum members._

_"Tomorrow our scientists will let you observe our systems in action," said Cato. _

_That's more like it! Ed thought. _

_The Executive continued. "But we would be honored, General Carter, if you and your people would join my family for dinner tonight and take accommodations with us." "We have a large home," he added a bit sheepishly. "One of the perquisites of this position."_

_"We would be honored, Executive Cato," Carter responded._

_"Smashing! I know my wife is eager to meet you in particular, General. She's an amateur astronomer and when she learned that you're an astrophysicist…"_

_Suddenly the heavy paneled front doors of the chamber swung open violently and at least a half dozen men burst in shouting: "Death to the Traitors! Death to the Invaders!"_

_They began shooting almost immediately._

_"Down!" shouted Carter as she pulled Executive Cato to the floor. The rest of her team was hitting the deck. Wood splintered as some kind of bullets hit the desks in front of them. The fancy guards began to return fire._

_"We can't stay here, General!" shouted Major Zamora. Two of the attackers went down under the guards' fire, but the Earth team was unarmed._

_As a unit, the Tauri and Plineans tried to make their way to the back doors--the Plinean guards attempting to protect Cato and Zamora attempting to protect General Carter. A few feet from the door the guards went down. Carter and Zamora grabbed the fallen men's weapons and returned fire. So much for keeping the VIP safe, Marks thought wryly. As they passed through the door Marks felt a burning pain in his leg, stumbled and fell into the hallway._

_Carter saw him get hit and moved ahead the few steps to him. Grabbing him under the arm she half dragged him down the hall._

_"This way," Cato said urgently. "I know a safe place."_

_Tyler took over helping Marks as Cato led them out the back door, through an alley and to a small home. _

_As the bloody, armed group burst in, a man and woman stood up from their dinner table in alarm._

_"Marcus! We must hide!" cried Cato._

Kristin was now clutching her grandpa's arm.

"Was it a safe place, grandpa?" asked Luke.

"I was just getting to that, kiddo," replied Ed.

_With no further conversation, the man called Marcus led them to the next room, lifted a wildly patterned carpet and opened a trap door. He handed Captain Jenkins a flashlight and said, "You'll be safe down there. I'll check on you later." _

_Zamora looked uncertain, but General Carter apparently read something in Marcus' and Cato's faces and signaled them to go down. They clambered down the ladder and Marcus closed the trap door above them._

_"Ok. What the hell was that all about?!" hissed Carter. _

_"There is a small group who vehemently oppose contact with other worlds. But their activities have been limited to street protests. There have been clashes with security forces, but I never thought they'd stoop to assassination," replied Cato, slipping off his ceremonial robe._

_"Speaking of security forces, where the hell were they?" asked Zamora, glancing at Tyler, who was bandaging Marks' upper calf._

_"I don't understand it." Cato shook his head in disbelief._

_Carter was skeptical. "If you didn't expect assassination attempts, how did you just happen to know about this "safe house," Cato?" she asked. "Just what did you lead my people into?" She groaned slightly as she sat down._

_"General, you've been hit!" Jenkins cried, shining her flashlight on Carter's left arm. Her blue sleeve looked wetly purple in the dark. _

_Tyler made to come over to look at her wound._

_"Take care of Marks first, Captain. As cliché as it sounds, I think mine's a flesh wound and it's not bleeding too badly. How is he?"_

_"There's some kind of bullet in there, ma'am." _

_Well, duh, Marks thought. I hope they don't try to take it out here._

_"We'll have to get it out before we move him." Oh, crap._

_"Ok," said the General. "Back to my question, Cato. How did you know about this place and can this Marcus help us?"_

_"Marcus was the leader of an underground movement before the establishment of the Quorum at a time when we were ruled by a dictator. He was never caught and no one knows of this place. And to answer your other question, he can indeed help you."_

_"Well then I need to talk to him. You and I are going back up there." Carter said to Marcus, pushing to her feet._

_"General, I don't think that's a good idea," Zamora objected. "Let me go bring him down."_

_She gave him what seemed in the dark to be an annoyed look. "You're injured," he continued, "and you need to get bandaged up, Ma'am."_

_Zamora signaled to Jenkins. "Check the General, Captain," he ordered._

_"Very well Major, but I'll be right at the door and in there at the first sign of trouble." Carter said._

_A few minutes later, Zamora returned with Marcus, who was carrying what appeared to be a medical bag. He gave Jenkins some disinfectant and materials to re-do the bandages Jenkins had started to put on the General and went over to Marks._

_"The bullet is still in the leg," he said, probing the wound. "It's deep, but I should be able to remove it before it does more damage."_

_"Are you a doctor?" asked Marks warily._

_"No, but I've handled my fair share of gunshot wounds," Marcus replied, taking some sharp looking surgical instruments out of his bag._

_General Carter made her way over and squatted next to Marks. _

_"Hang in there, Colonel. I'll get you out of here," she said quietly._

_"I know you will, ma'am," he replied through clenched teeth. "All in a day's work, huh?"_

_Against his will, Marks passed out when Marcus started digging for the bullet with what felt like a sharpened spoon._

"Oh, poor Grandpa!" cried Kristin. She released the arm she'd been doing a limpet imitation on to give him a hug.

"Do you have a scar?" asked Luke.

Ed looked to his wife. "Ok, go ahead and show them," she sighed.

Ed pulled up his left pants leg to the knee. On his calf a fairly large, puckered looking scar on the skin was evident.

"Cool," said Luke in awe.

"Does it hurt, Grandpa?" Kristin asked.

"Not any more, sweetie," Ed answered, giving her a little hug.

"What happened next, Grandpa?" Luke questioned, ready to move the story forward.

_The next thing he knew, the sun was in his eyes, his leg was pounding like a kettle drum and he realized was being carried on a litter by Zamora and Tyler. _

_"Good thing we wore slacks with our blues, huh, Hillary?" General Carter was saying. "Of course, I never expected we'd be hiking today." _

_"Me neither, ma'am," replied Captain Jenkins._

_"What I'd give for my nicely broken in combat boots right about now. Don't get to wear them nearly enough these days. Next time we wear BDUs—the heck with protocol."_

_"Next time, ma'am?" Jenkins asked uncertainly._

_General Carter didn't reply. Ed looked around and saw her glance down at him and then scan the area, weapon drawn. Despite her light comments to Jenkins, she was clearly on high alert. Everyone seemed to be armed with Plinean weapons. Evidently Cato's friend had been very helpful._

_"We're almost at the Gate, Ed," she said with a reassuring smile. _

_"I think I'd like to stick to ship duty after this, ma'am," he replied. He heard her chuckle softly._

_They were within about 100 meters of the gate when shots rang out. Marks lifted his head to see what was going on. Carter shoved him back down on the litter. Yeah, way to get your head shot off, Ed, he scolded himself._

_  
"Dial the Gate, Jenkins!" Zamora shouted as he and Tyler began to run with Marks' litter._

_Marks heard the sound of shots behind him and knew that General Carter was covering them and returning fire. Everyone else had his or her hands full._

_The Gate whooshed open. Bullets pinged around them. The litter see-sawed as Zamora attempted to give his end to Jenkins to free his gun hand. Damnit, I should be helping, not lying here, Ed thought, though he was admittedly dizzy._

_"Get through the Gate, all of you!" Carter shouted. "I'm right behind you."_

_A second later they were thudding down the ramp and Marks was being lowered to the ground just off the ramp. As medical techs began to work on his leg, he strained to sit up, spotting Jenkins, Tyler and Zamora, but not General Carter. _

_Long seconds passed before she backed through the Gate, weapon pointed. "Lock it up!" she shouted. The iris whirred closed. _

_The General's left sleeve was bright red with blood. Marks wasn't sure if it was a new wound or if the original one had opened up again. _

_"The General's wounded!" he called. And then he was being whisked off to the infirmary._

"Poor General Carter," commented Kristin. "Does she have a scar too?"

"Probably. But it's not like she's showed it off to me," he replied amused.

_Some time later after they got him settled in a comfortable infirmary bed, with a nice dose of painkillers, the General appeared at his bedside in BDUs, arm in a sling._

_"General! Are you ok?" he said trying to sit up._

_"I'm fine, Ed, " she replied, motioning him back down. "Doctor Grant says you will be too." She smiled suddenly. "Kind of reminds me of the first time we met-- only our positions are reversed."_

_He was amazed she remembered after all this time. _

_"But I promise I won't make you do power module analyses this time," she added. _

_"General, I need you to sign these papers," came a voice from the doorway._

_"Always paperwork," she sighed. She looked him in the eye. "Take care, Colonel." He watched as she walked out to the waiting Lieutenant with the clipboard._

"Did you help Grandpa get better, Grandma, like you did with General Carter when you met Grandpa?" asked Kristin.

"I sure did. But I wasn't working in the infirmary at that time, so I helped him get better at home," Jo answered.

"That's good," said Kristin and Luke was nodding in agreement.

"You sure are a hero, Grandpa," said Luke. He loved his grandfather and thought he was great, but he had developed a whole new appreciation for him this afternoon. "Can we see you in your uniform now?"

Ed put on the coat laden with ribbons.

"You look just as handsome as the day I met you, dear," said Jo fondly.

"Very cool," said Luke.

"Just like a Prince Charming," declared Kristin, beaming.

"Oh, brother," said Luke, rolling his eyes.

"Ok, how about some baseball?" Ed said, taking the coat off and hanging it up.

But the children weren't quite done yet.

"Grandpa, when you see General Carter at her party tomorrow, tell her we think she's a hero, too," ordered Luke. Kristin was nodding in agreement.

"I sure will, kids," promised Ed. He and Jo exchanged a proud look.

"Ok, who's pitching?" he asked as he put his arm around his wife and ushered the kids from the room.

"You pitch, Grandpa. Luke doesn't pitch right," said Kristin.

"I do so. You just can't bat," countered Luke as he headed down the stairs.

Ed Marks chuckled as he headed downstairs, behind the kids.


End file.
